Prayer based on 1 Corinthians 13

“If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (World English Bible throughout)

- Lord forgive us for setting wrong priorities and doing good things for the wrong reasons or giving to get. Lord lead us to seek first the Kingdom of God and your righteousness so that our efforts in education and  earning a living may be according to your will. We need you in our lives to be a blessing to our families and the communities in which we live.

“Love is patient and is kind; love does not envy. Love does not brag, is not proud, does not behave itself inappropriately, does not seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

- Lord empower us to possess and share true love as we strive to grow in grace and knowledge, and show forth
the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.”

- Lord grant us the wisdom to set our priorities on the kingdom work that you have set for us according to your will, as we anticipate Christ’s return.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”

- Thank you Lord that you have helped us to absorb the milk of the word. You led us to repent and believe the gospel promise of eternal life through faith in Jesus.

- We need you to continue to work with us and transform us (Romans 12:1-8), as you lead us on to perfection in Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 5:12-14, and Hebrews 6:1-3)

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain – these three. The greatest of these is love.”

- Thank you Lord for unpacking the great concepts involved in your unconditional love, in this scripture passage which was written for our learning by the apostle Paul, nearly 2000 years ago.
- AMEN.

-www.blueletterbible.org  DAY BY DAY BT GRACE

Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment.

When you are born-again (John 3:3) it is much like the first birth in that you must have someone take care of your [spiritual] needs and must start learning spiritual things; how to eat, how to walk, and how to talk.
Let’s start with what to eat.

I know many new Christians that want to dive into really deep mysteries of the Bible; Revelation comes to mind!
That would be like feeding a baby a spicy pizza with jalapenos.
You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Heb 5:12-14

I know a mom that has been nursing her baby for almost a year. The child does eat some solid food also but is still dependent upon mom. It’s a wonderful relationship for both. There is love, security, trust, and comfort for the child.
Isn’t that what your relationship with Christ should be like?

The milk of the word is to help wean us away from the sinful nature.
I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. 1 Cor 3:2-3
The milk of God’s word should teach how to live properly, including how to walk and to talk.
Quickly each Christian can learn we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7) and let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. Eph 4:29

The time will come when the born-again person can eat more solid teaching from the Bible. There will be that time to study Revelation. But you must crawl before you walk; and you must walk before you run.

What are you hungry for?
Photo by Tracey Lewis

I heard once that spiritual hunger is directly the opposite of physical hunger. If someone was to go a long period of time without physical food they would get hungrier and eventually they would eat. Spiritual hunger, on the other hand, is not this way. When you go long periods of time without eating spiritually you will become progressively less desirous of eating. It seems that spiritual hunger is driven by spiritual eating whereas physical hunger is driven by going without. So when eating physical food you will, at some point, become full, but as you eat spiritually you will become hungrier and hungrier.

When I was first born-again no one had to tell me “Now, Louie you need to read your bible.” The Spirit of God within me led me to the scriptures. I didn’t really know how to go about studying the scriptures, mind you, but I knew intuitively that I wanted to study them. There was an indescribable hunger within me to grow as close to God as I could.

Peter wrote in his first letter “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” That described me perfectly. My inner man, or should I say child at this point, was crying out to be fed the milk of the word. Absolutely no one was going to keep me from it.

I went to the library to find books to help me understand the scriptures. I read my bible for hours in the evenings after work. In fact this was during the two years Tracey and I were divorced and she had taken the kitchen table with her. I would literally stand in my kitchen for hours with two versions of the bible and read. I would read a chapter in the KJV and then turn to the Living Bible and read the same chapter again. I would be so wrapped up in the scriptures that I wouldn’t eat or even notice it had gotten dark outside.

Jesus told us in Matthew 5 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” My mom would come to my house and find me sprawled out with two or three different translations of the Bible and a notepad. She would say, “What are doing, rewriting the whole Bible? I was a man obsessed! I had spent most of my life chasing after peace and joy in a bottle or pill, and finally in Christ I had discovered what real peace and joy was. I had found that food Jesus told his disciples “they knew not of” and that well that was promised to the woman in Samaria and boy was it bubbling up life in me.

As I attended Sunday school and talked with Tracey about the Bible I quickly discovered there weren’t many who shared my new-found intensity for the scriptures. Oh, everyone seemed genuinely happy for me and my excitement but it was as if the shine had worn off for some of them. As I grew hungrier and hungrier for the Word no one was with me except Tracey.

After Tracey and I were reunited, which is nothing short of a miracle itself, I would read the Bible to her and tell her what I thought it meant. At first she wasn’t buying it she would say, “That’s not true or that isn’t what it says!” Then I would say, “I’m just telling you what the Bible says.” She had grown up going to church but she said she never heard most of what I shared with her before. Slowly but surely she started to come around and embrace what I was telling her. That was over 11yrs ago and even now I follow her around with the Bible or some other book and read to her and we discuss it. The hunger for the Spirit of God hasn’t faded in me yet, and I pray it never does.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good!”

Written by Louie

I suppose that’s true. The Bible does seem to be a line of demarcation. But apparently so is holiness.

As I’ve shared here at A Christian Worldview of Fiction in a previous discussion about holiness, before I started blogging, I joined a writing discussion board. At one point I brought up the topic of holiness, with the intent of discussing how a writer can show the holiness side of edgy. Instead I got an inordinate amount of discussion about legalism. Legalism!

Color me still surprised. Legalism has as much to do with holiness as prostitution does.

How is it that a Christian can mistake a works theology for holiness?

Judaism is based on works. Keep the law, observe the holy days, offer the sacrifices. Do, do, do.

Hinduism is based on works. Everything is geared toward doing better in order to move up the reincarnation chain into a better life.

Islam is based on works. Much like Judaism, Islamic law is the guide for daily living, and failure has consequences here and in the after life.

Buddhism is based on works. Walking the path of ethical conduct, wisdom, and discipline is the way to freedom from suffering — nirvana.

Christianity on the other hand declares rather boldly, all our works get us nothing. We can’t do enough or be enough. We can’t be the kind of person we should, we can’t think pure enough thoughts or purge our desires of self. In short, we aren‘t holy and we can’t be holy by our human efforts.

Legalism, then, is antithetical to Christianity.

And yet 1 Peter 1:15-16 says,

Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

A couple things stand out to me. In the same way that God is love, He is holy. How have we lost sight of that, I wonder. So often we hear pastors giving as the rationale for a person to love the unlovely, the fact that God is love and we are to be like Him. But where do we hear the sermons about not lying to our kids or not stealing from our employer.

Enough, we say. That borders on works and we are all about grace.

Salvation is by grace, certainly. Except we are to grow up in respect to salvation (see 1 Peter 2:1-5).

Life in Christ is life — starting with a new birth but not ending with a new birth. We are then to grow by feeding on the word of God.

Ironically, there are some people who believe holiness is conferred instantaneously upon a Christian and that the sure sign a person is in the family of God is that he no longer sins. I say “ironically” because this belief seems to bring us right back to legalism.

A person can proudly congratulate himself that he has not sinned for years and years, missing the fact that his prideful attitude is in fact a sin.

Such a “holiness” doctrine seems to stifle all chance for growth as completely as someone who thinks all holiness is tantamount to legalism.

The bottom line is that we are commanded to be holy. That’s the second thing that stands out to me in the passage from 1 Peter 1. It’s not just an Old Testament thing that Christians can ignore.

At the same time, reality and Scripture tell us we cannot be holy. Only Christ lived a holy life. So what we who have newness of life are to do is to be imitators of Him, submit to God’s work of remolding us into the image of His Son, feed on the pure milk of the Word. And grow.

By John  W. Ritenebaugh

As we have seen previously, the lives of Jacob and Esau provide major spiritual lessons. Esau represents the uncalled man of the world, and Jacob, the elect of God. The Bible plainly shows that Jacob’s election gave him a decided advantage over Esau in fulfilling God’s purpose. Inherently, he was no better than Esau, but his outlook on life—his perspective or worldview—was decidedly different. His approach to the business of life did
not happen suddenly, but it developed as God led him through life. This enabled him to make better choices than Esau because he contemplated and desired a better alternative, one that Esau’s totally carnal mind could not access.

Another important instruction for us derives from the same  series of incidents. Most of the choices involved in God’s way of life will take
place within common, ordinary circumstances, like eating, drinking, working and relating within a family and community. In Ephesians 1, the apostle Paul lists some of the major advantages God’s calling provides, yet even these have no  value unless we choose to use them as God intends in the everyday events of life.

Today we live in cultures that lure people into a spiritual stupor that gradually desensitizes people to true spiritual and moral values. Jesus warns that the time would come when, because lawlessness abounds, the love of many in the church would grow cold (Matthew 24:12). He also warns through Paul that in this time people would be so perverse as to be without even natural affection (II Timothy 3:3). We live in those times, and it requires a clear vision and a steadfast conduct to avoid being sucked into following the worldly crowd. God has given our cultures over to allowing the carnal mind to spend itself on continuous sensation-seeking stimulation. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are virtually running wild.

One paraphrase of Romans 1:28 changed the term “reprobate mind” (KJV; debased mind, NKJV) to “degrading passions seeking stimulation.” Another rendered it as “irrational stimulation resulting in monstrous behavior.” Without a strong resistance to this almost unrelenting pressure, such stimulation will gradually produce a stupor, an apathy, an unfeeling indifference toward the highest priorities of life, that is, our relationships with God and fellow man. If a person does not defend himself against lawlessness, he will lose his God-given love. A Christian must guard himself strongly against becoming caught up in the stupor-inducing spirit of the times of which Paul forewarns us.

His warning is that now is the time of our salvation, and we must use our advantages yet not look down in scornful pride on the unconverted.
We have these advantages only because God has favored us, not because we are in any way inherently better than others. They are not based on anything we have earned through any works we may have done. The world around us is indeed stumbling around much like Esau did, but God is bringing good to us now. In common terms, Paul is saying to us, “Hey! Wake up! You can be replaced. Don’t lose your crown through carelessness and laziness.”

Paul writes in Romans 11:22: “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if
you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” He minces no words in informing us that patient kindness and sternness are both aspects of God’s character. Despite how we might feel at any given time during a trial, He has showered us with abundant kindness. This
understanding, however, must be balanced with the knowledge that His demeanor toward us can be reversed if we waste so great an opportunity as the grace He so abundantly pours out on us. We, too—though His elect—can be objects of His sternness.

In the church’s scattering, we are even now recipients of a measure of His sternness. Yet even so, His sternness is carried out in love
ultimately to prepare us better for His Kingdom than we would have been had things continued as they were. It is good to recall that when an unconverted person’s blindness is wiped away, God grafts them in as He did us. God accepts some now and rejects others because God wills it. We, then, need to dig in and take care of the business at hand, God’s business, submitting to His work of forming and shaping us into His image.

With this in mind, we must consider this sobering question: Will we, like Jacob, use our advantages profitably, or, like the likeable Esau,
fritter them away in the world?

Feeding the Mind

The experiences of Isaac’s sons lead directly into a vitally important principle derived from eating: the assimilation of knowledge into the
mind, especially the knowledge of God by which we grow. Everybody knows the truism, “We are what we eat.” Our body can work only with the food it is given. Aware of it or not, junk-food junkies run a constant risk of destroying their physical health. They abuse their bodies by not giving themselves the materials they need to function well over a long period. What tastes good on the tongue may not support good health.

The Bible expands upon this, teaching us that feeding the mind runs parallel to this truism. The mind can work only within the quality and
quantity of what we provide it in the way of genetics, formal instruction, examples of other’s lives and personal experiences digested and assimilated through thoughtful meditation.

Jesus says in Luke 12:22-23, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.” The phrase “do not worry” suggests a greater-than-normal concern about managing what we possess. Jesus directs this admonishment toward everyone because, no matter how much we possess, the drive to get more remains, along with insecurity about losing what we already have. He is not saying we should be unconcerned about the quality of what we eat; His concern is that we worry too much about whether we will have anything to eat.

Our focus, though, is on His statement that life is more than food and clothing. It indicates that stability and serenity of mind must come
from within a person, not from outward, physical provisions. To set one’s heart on material possessions or to worry about the lack of them is to live in perpetual insecurity. This approach to life is a sure-fire way to deprive ourselves of a major blessing of life God wants us to enjoy. His calling enables us to live an abundant life in peace and joy. In order to do this, we must be weaned away from our overwhelming dependence
upon physical things. In other words, we will not find balanced emotional stability unless and until our minds are fed with a nutritious spiritual
diet.

God reveals this truth in II Timothy 1:6-7: “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” It takes the Spirit of God to produce a truly sound mind. This verse also implies that, as long as the mind is devoid of God’s Spirit, it cannot be considered to be truly healthy. Any mind that lacks the Holy Spirit will, like Esau’s, be limited in its outlook, unstable to some degree, and focused on itself. It may be very sharp regarding material things, but it will be deficient in the ability to cope with life in a godly manner because it cannot see things in a proper, righteous-or-unrighteous context. Instead, it will have a strong tendency to twist situations toward its own self-centered perspective. This does not make for good relationships.

Definitely a Parallel

In John 6:63, Jesus expands on a part of this subject: “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” This is a simple yet profound statement. God’s Spirit is truly more than words, but to understand this point, it is
enough to know that God’s words—”the words I speak to you,” as Jesus says—are spirit, and they play a large role in producing the abundant life God intends we live. This quality of life is not achieved through physical things. Material things can be helpful, but without the true concepts contained within God’s Word, the abundant quality will be missing because true abundance ultimately depends upon spiritual things, not material ones.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 adds to this concept:

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

This is one of the earliest references to the parallel between physical and spiritual eating. It is not directly stated but implied. God intended Israel’s experiences in the wilderness to instruct the Israelites that all of life, both physical and spiritual aspects, depends upon God’s providence. These verses also confirm that leading a good life, an abundant life, is dependent upon one’s spiritual, mental and emotional base. These elements of the mind determine one’s outlook, goals and reactions to the myriad vicissitudes of life. These verses confirm that God directly leads us into many of them, as a means of instructing us, producing dual results: first, to experience them and develop certain characteristics; second, to test us so both He and we can see where we stand and how we cope.

A major problem is that human nature compels us to focus almost totally upon the physical. God provides us “wilderness experiences” to let us
know that there is a spiritual aspect to life that requires feeding and maintenance just as surely as the physical. Prayer, study, meditation and obedience are the assimilation process in this parallel. Within this feeding/assimilation process, our relationship with God, worship and
religion should be enhanced to play an effective, positive role in life. Worship is more than adoration and reverence; it is the response of the whole person to the entirety of God’s will in all aspects of life. In the church, at home, on the job and in the community, our direction must always be whatever God wills.

Starvation of the spirit is less obvious on the outside than physical hunger because the spirit starves much more slowly and it resides
within. Spiritual malnutrition may go unrecognized for long periods because the body and life goes right on. Yet just as surely as one’s body gives signs that it needs nourishment, so does the spirit, and it, too, will eventually be recognized on the outside by its symptoms.

When the body cries out for food, one feels emptiness in the stomach, weakness in the muscles and even sleepiness. If it goes on long enough,
a faintness and headache may arise. But when the spirit is malnourished either from deprivation or a harmful diet, the gradual reaction in life is
different.

Spiritual weakness appears, as does sin. With sin comes anger, irritability, exasperation, depression, discouragement, melancholy, despondency,
gloominess, bitterness, hatred, resentment, self-pity, hopelessness, despair, paranoia, envy, jealousy, family conflict, arguing, divorce, drunkenness or other addictions, and competitiveness as self-centeredness deepens.

A purpose of Deuteronomy 8:2-3 is to emphasize to Israel and now to us that the source of spiritual nourishment is more important than the
nourishment itself. If we have the right source, the nourishment will be good. Otherwise, the situation is hopeless. Our source of nourishment must, of course, be God.

When tempted by Satan, Jesus quotes this verse (Matthew 4:4). He implies in His answer that, unlike Esau, He received a vitality that sustained Him even though He had not physically eaten. Therefore, He had no need to succumb to Satan’s temptation. Israel also demanded
bread in the wilderness. They ate and proceeded to die there. Jesus denied Himself bread, instead trusting God in submission to Him, retained His righteousness and lived.

Something similar to this appears again in John 4:31-34:In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

The disciples expect Jesus to be both physically tired and hungry. John notes in verse 6 that he was indeed wearied from the journey. But
when they urge Him to eat, He is no longer weary. In the meantime, doing the work of God and seeking His Kingdom had become His food; it drew Him, filled Him, energized and strengthened Him. It is exhilarating to know God’s will and to know that we are doing it! What a sense of satisfaction and well-being it adds to our lives!

The Pure Word of God

Jeremiah experienced a similar exhilarating fullness:

O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not take me away in Your longsuffering. Know that for our sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them. And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:15-16)

Isaiah 55:1-3 contains an appeal, continuing the theme that there is a spiritual food that nourishes the inner man and fills one’s life in a
way and with abundance that all of a person’s material things cannot:

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear,
and your soul shall live; and I will make an ever lasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David.

That God is speaking about His Word is seen in the word “listen,” which is directly connected to the phrase “eat what is good.” This
food is, of course, spiritual, and its source is God. Interestingly, He says to come and buy, but not with money. This food cannot be purchased with material wealth. All the money in the world cannot purchase it, but it still must be bought. Recall that the foolish virgins in Matthew 25 are advised to go out and buy oil from those who sell in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom.

The “food” in Isaiah 55 and the “oil” in Matthew 25 can be bought only by means of the dedication and commitment of one’s life in submission to Christ. By being a living sacrifice in prayer, study, meditation and obedience, one becomes energized by the food of God’s Word. In addition, one can “purchase” it only from those appointed by God to “sell” it. It can only be bought from those already converted and provided by God with the gifts to teach it to others. In most cases, this is the ministry of the true church.

Jeremiah 3:15 provides us with clear Old Testament evidence that the principle of feeding the mind with the correct instruction leads to good spiritual health: “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” God clearly states that a mind fed with the right things can produce wisdom, holiness and happiness. In other words, He promises that those who hear Him will be fed the elements of an abundant life through shepherds who exhibit godly character. God’s Word, if it is believed and practiced, produces a unique perspective of life and a balance that cannot be found through any other means. Nothing that man has produced through philosophy or religion can even come close. These elements of human society have played major roles in producing restless, anxious, violent cultures.

We must choose to secure the best diet for the mind to utilize and assimilate into one’s moral and spiritual character, as well as other expressions of personality. The world produces an almost overwhelming amount of spiritual junk food and outright spiritual garbage, and it is within easy reach of any mind anywhere no matter where one lives.

Peter writes:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. (I Peter 1:22–2:2)

Notice the implications for one’s mental health in this passage. Today, health experts emphasize eating organic foods grown without harsh chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Non-organically grown foods are known to be deficient in nutrients and may also contaminate the body. Modern health practitioners also emphasize cleansing the body internally through certain regimens. Peter is saying a similar thing here in a spiritual, moral and ethical context. God’s pure Word can purify the mind, freeing it from the corruption of our pre-conversion experiences. This will happen, though, only if we consistently—daily—eat it and use it as we would eat and use good foods in feeding and caring for our physical bodies.

Ephesians 5:25-27 confirms this spiritual process:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with he washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

All of the companies that produce “health foods” claim that, if we will just use their products, our physical health will improve. Peter essentially claims the same thing will be the benefit of eating and using God’s Word—except that he extends improved health all the way to eternal life! He
specifically points out that one benefit is the production of unfeigned love of the brethren. It is love expressed that makes life abundant for both giver and receiver.

God Expects Growth

Following I Peter 2:1, in which he admonishes us to rid ourselves of the fruits of spiritual junk food, Peter lists evidence of a mind afflicted with
a poor spiritual diet. Malice is ill will, the desire to inflict pain. Deceit is lying or crafty, seductive and slanderous activity. Hypocrisy is pretending to be what one is not. Envy is the strong desire to possess what belongs to another. Evil speaking is using the tongue to gossip, deceive others or destroy reputations.

Peter proceeds to encourage us to crave God’s Word just as a baby craves milk. He is not encouraging us to desire elementary spiritual food
but emphasizing the energy we should exert to get good spiritual food. Babies demand milk as if their very life hangs in the balance at each feeding.

The apostle calls God’s Word pure, meaning uncontaminated, unpolluted by fraud or deceit. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). David says that God’s Word is refined seven times (Psalm 12:6). Truly, Peter is teaching us that God’s Word promotes spiritual growth and good health just as good food can do physically.

In using milk as a metaphor, Peter is in no way chiding people as Paul does in Hebrews 5:12-14. The former uses milk simply as a nourishing
food because his emphasis is on desire, not depth. Paul uses milk as a metaphor for elementary because he wants to shock the Hebrews into comprehending how far they had slipped from their former state of conversion.

Paul also uses milk as a metaphor for weak or elementary in I Corinthians 3:1-2: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.” Paul judges the Corinthians as weak based upon their behaviors and attitudes, which reflected no spiritual progress. So he “fed” these immature Christians elementary knowledge because things of greater depth would have gone unappreciated, misunderstood and unused. These references directly tie spiritual diet to growth in understanding, behavior and attitude.

Paul’s milk metaphors are scathing put-downs! Undoubtedly, he seriously hurt the feelings of many in the congregation, yet he is free and
clear before God of any charge of offense. He does not question their conversion, but he certainly rebukes their lack of growth. He rightly judges
that they need to have their feelings hurt so they could salvage what remained of their conversion.

Hebrews 5:12-14 repeats this imagery:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

In I Corinthians 3, the embarrassing immaturity that required him to feed the people like babies also produced strife and factions in the congregation, proving that the people were far more carnal than converted. The Hebrews account is more complex: The people had once been more mature but had regressed. It is a situation vaguely similar to elderly people becoming afflicted with dementia, except that faith, love, character, conduct and attitude were being lost rather than mental faculties. This resulted in the people drifting aimlessly.

An additional insight regarding an insufficient spiritual diet appears in the next chapter. Paul tells them that their problems are directly related to being lazy. Dull in the phrase “dull of hearing” in Hebrews 5:11 is more closely related to “sluggish” or “slothful.” It is translated as such in Hebrews 6:12, “. . . that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Paul charges them with being lazy listeners; they are not putting forth the effort to meditate and apply what is taught them. They are, at best, merely accepting. That they are not using what they hear is proof enough for Paul to understand that they are not thinking through the seriousness or the practical applications of the teachings. In other words, they are not assimilating what they hear, and the result is a lack of faith and a consequent faithlessness. His rebuke is far more serious than the one in I Corinthians 3 because these people are older in the faith. They have frittered away a large amount of time that would have been far better spent on spiritual growth.

Paul attempts to shame and shock them into realizing how far they had slipped by calling these grown people—some of them undoubtedly elderly—infants. He goes so far as to tell them that they are unacquainted with and unskilled in the teaching on righteousness. In other words, he attributes to them the one particular trait of infants: that they do not understand the difference between right and wrong, a characteristic that defines immaturity. A parent must instruct and chasten a child until it understands.

The Bible provides ample evidence that a poor spiritual diet results in a spiritually weak and diseased person, just as a poor physical diet works to erode and eventually destroy a person’s physical vitality. Similarly, we can see that a person can be in good spiritual health but lose it through
laziness or another form of neglect. Just as a mature adult needs good, solid nourishment to maintain his vitality and remain free of disease, the spiritual parallel follows. For one to grow to spiritual maturity and vitality, a mature Christian needs solid, spiritual nourishment, assimilated and actively applied, to continue growing and prevent regressing, as opposed to the Hebrews sluggish spiritual deterioration.

The Shepherd’s Responsibility

Near the end of his first epistle, Peter writes, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint [compulsion, margin] but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (I Peter 5:2-3). The Greek word translated as “shepherd” embraces all the things a shepherd would do for a flock of sheep such as protecting, penning, guiding and feeding. All these categories fall within the notion of promoting growth.

These two verses succinctly define a pastor’s job as promoting growth in the flock by feeding, protecting, guiding and leading the minds of those within it. This function is accomplished in a wide variety of ways, including preaching, counseling, publishing material, being a godly example and correcting appropriately and in measure.

Jesus magnifies our understanding of a pastor’s responsibilities by adding His authority in His command to Peter in John 21:15-17:So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to Him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

The King James translators blur a distinction Jesus makes by translating two different words into the single word “feed.” The New King James
corrects this deficiency in verse 16 by using “tend,” the exact same word translated as “shepherd” in I Peter 5:2. It has a far broader application than the word rendered “feed” in verses 15 and 17. Taken together, these words reveal that a pastor has broad responsibility for the overall health and protection of the flock. Applying this principle back to physical health, good health and well-being require a multifaceted program beyond just eating good food. For instance, we must also get regular and sufficient sleep, avoid bodily injury and maintain good attitudes.

Earlier, we saw that Jesus speaks about the energizing power of spiritual food. As we progress in following His teaching, an interesting and vital transition occurs: He becomes His followers’ spiritual food, and unless we are eating of Him, we find we have no life in us.

Read
more: http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/PERSONAL/k/22/Eating-How-Good-Is-Part-Three.htm#ixzz1S54JRYCo

Some churches that have gone seeker-sensitive might tend to be lacking in substance in their preaching and teaching.  De-churched people who have been re-churched after a long spell, or those who are completely new to the church, get spiritually fed with “the milk of the word”.  However, when they have outgrown the early stages of spiritual development or discipleship, they become dissatisfied with the continual feeding of spiritual “milk” because they’re longing for a deeper understanding and walk with the Lord.  And of course, there are those who are taught and fed  “steak” when what they really need was “milk”.  After a time of feeling hungry for a deeper spirituality, they decide to leave.  Many of us out there have experienced both these.  But where do you find the middle ground in satisfying people in all stages of faith?

I read a comment this morning about the virgin birth. The biblical story is such an easy bone for the nay sayers to grab hold off. Yet today there are many women who have children through IVF without having sexual intercourse. Surely this is a modern tale of virgin birth unheard of in Mary’s day!

I can hear the people from Mary’s day laughing their heads off at such a notion. To paraphrase in Australian English “Pull the other one mate – your’re just having a lend – what a load of bull —- I can tell! Ha ha ha…etc”

Unbelief would have been as rampant then as it is today.

So what is so unusual about this event for me that I am back at my computer writing again?

It is what happened to me when I read about Elizabeth greeting Mary with these words “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” The word that came to me in that moment was that for us today the greeting could be “Blessed is the fruit of your heart.”

I took a few inward steps back. What could this notion mean?

Could the fruit of our heart truly be blessed?

From my experience the fruit coming out of our hearts is often very mixed, good fruit is mixed with rotten fruit. This is confusing to ourselves and others. So what is going on?

Something about this idea wouldn’t let my mind rest as there was a logic to it I could not deny.

The internal debate raged.

Didn’t Mary believe God and nurture the word who was Jesus the son of God? Isn’t Jesus called the word made flesh? Isn’t his flesh now the symbols of the food from heaven represented in the bread and wine of communion celebrated in churches all around the world?

So what made this fruit grow?

Wasn’t it Mary’s faith and the faith of Joseph that protected Jesus during his child hood? Didn’t both Mary and Joseph take enormous risks protecting Jesus’s life? Didn’t others like the Wise Men also take risks to protect it? What about John the Baptist? – he even lost his head over it.

Now that is taking a serious risk! But for what? Jesus was crucified after all this work. It seems such a waste. Yet he was called the first fruit!

Is it possible that when we believe as Mary did we give birth to the word in our hearts? If this is true then the fruit of our hearts would be Jesus’s life. If so the words “Blessed is the fruit of our hearts.” would be true.

My question to myself is this – is it true for me?

Time for some serious soul searching.

I recalled the stable Jesus was born in. Our own hearts are often dark and as filthy as that stable full of animals so long ago so this seems reasonable.

But, how does this life grow?

Surely this life of Christ in us is nurtured on the milk of the word? I have heard this notion preached in church. They say faith comes by hearing Gods word.

Mary heard God’s word and believed it. Her faith was the evidence she was expecting it to come true. And so she swelled with her gestation of Jesus inside her till it was time to give birth. Through her labour the first fruit, Jesus, was birthed as she sacrificed herself to give him life.

We can do the same so nothing has changed. Women do this all the time for their children but what about the conception of Christ in our hearts – how is this different?

When we conceive Christ in our hearts Jesus life growing within us can become more precious to us than our own life. We grow in faith until we have been prepared to be crucified. Then Gods hardest of all gifts for us – our own crucifixion is revealed to us.

This is crunch time and we have to choose the way we will endure it. No one misses out on this when our time comes. However many of us wish we were better prepared.

When its time, will we be like the murderer or the thief who died along side Jesus? Will we be like Jesus and learn from him? There is nothing easy about this – everyone ends up dead. Even Jesus ended up dead.

In the end of this journey our heart is like the tomb the crucified Jesus laid in. All hope seems lost. We are alone and waiting on God. Who knows for how long!

The saying goes that the darkest hour is the hour just before dawn and many of us would much rather be asleep than watching waiting and praying as Jesus asked his disciples to do. Hence those who make this choice to follow Jesus all the way through the cross that comes to them grieve alone – misunderstood, unloved and often rejected when they say yes to the cross on Jesus’s terms.

It’s tough to go all the way with Jesus. It’s the hard and narrow way the bible talks about. It is however the way we can bring the life of Christ into this world now.

When all hope seems lost we can discover Jesus lives in our hearts using the eyes of faith Mary demonstrated so long ago. As we watch wait and pray the flourishing of God’s word in our hearts brings forth in us the fruit of heaven in every season of our lives.

This is the fruit of heaven – to be eternally loved and cherished, to be forgiven for all we have done wrong and most especially to celebrate and enter into the diversity of life in God’s own Kingdom he is so willing to freely give us.

If you learn from Jesus and go through your crucifixion using his approach those who have loved you always – regardless – will become so beloved for you and so forgiven by you, even if they don’t understand a word you’re telling them. The love inside you will just gush out as it will not be contained. In this way the Kingdom of God will come near to them.

I would like to say trust me on this one but that might be just a bit much so I say trust Jesus’s word – it will accomplish all it was sent to do in you. It’s already done so much in me I am excited to discover what each new day brings.

Are you ready for one hell of a ride through death and into life doing it Jesus’s way? Sorry there are no seat belts – just a great life policy that’s free for those who commit themselves to it. As the bible says in Mathew Chapter 6 verse 33 “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness and all else will be given to you.”

A friend of mine says often – “It’s all good you know – it’s all good.”

Blessings from
Dianne

This morning I am again looking at these two verses from Isaiah that were my reading yesterday.

The stress then was on the “buy without money” aspect of what God was offering to his exiled people in Babylon. “Without money,” says the NIV, “and without cost” — but that is a very unfortunate translation of the Hebrew word mechiyr. Mechiyr means “price” not “cost” and there is a difference! Price is what I have to pay a seller for passing ownership to me of what he has on offer; cost is what the seller has had to expend to produce or acquire whatever it is that he has on offer. And all that God offers, though it comes at no price to me, comes at great cost to him. That is the glory of grace. All that God offered the exiles through Isaiah, even though it was six centuries before the cross, came at the cost of the blood of Jesus shed on Calvary; for that blood was God’s “expenditure” once and for all to make available all his gifts, for all time, for all his people.

But what are the gifts on offer here? Water is the first and foremost, and I touched on what the water is yesterday. It is the water of life. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22.17). It is the “living water” that Jesus offered the woman of Samaria (John 4.10). “Living water” was the common expression in Biblical times for spring water as opposed to the water stored in cisterns, but in Jesus’ vocabulary it meant more … it meant the very life of God.

Each day at the Feast of Tabernacles — the last feast of the Jewish year — a priest would leave the temple as the morning sacrifice was being prepared and go to the Pool of Siloam where he would fill a golden jug with water. On his return, he would pour the water into a basin that led to base of altar so that the water would then flow out into temple and beyond. It was an enacting of the vision Ezekiel had had of water flowing from the temple and bringing life wherever it flowed (Ezekiel 47.9). So it was that “on the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him’” (John 7.37-38). The water I am to come to Jesus for is the life of the Spirit of God, and when I drink deep of that water I will have life within me that will overflow to others.

But also on offer is milk and wine. I recall that when Jacob blessed his twelve sons before he died, his blessing on Judah, a forefather of Jesus, included milk and wine (Gen 49.10-12); but what might they mean to me today as symbols of what God would offer me, freely and without price?

In Peter’s first epistle, milk is to logikon gala — “the milk of the Word” or “spiritual milk” (1 Peter 2.2). Milk is, of course, a food drink — just one glass gives me 30% of the calcium I need each day, 20% of the phosphorous, 25% of the Vitamin D, 16% of the proteins, and so on. And milk represents God’s spiritual food for keeping me healthy and strong. It is his communication with me through the Spirit. His conversations with me through Scripture, prayer, talks, sermons, books, nature etc. It is what makes me grow into my salvation.

And wine. Wine “gladdens the heart of man” (Psalm 104.15), but what does it represent? The clue is in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. “Do not get drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5.18) If water is the life of the Spirit that brings me alive, and milk is the food of the Spirit that makes me grow, then wine is the intoxicant of the Spirit that gets rid of my inhibitions, liberates me and makes me joyful. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter had to explain to the crowds, “These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’” (Acts 2.15-17). At the wedding in Cana, Mary came to Jesus and said, “They have no wine!” (John 2.3). Is she saying that about me?

God’s call to me this morning is no different from what it was to his people in Babylon. It is still, “Hoy, come to the water, come to the milk, come to the wine.” In short, it is an invitation to me this morning to drink afresh of his life-giving, strength-giving, joy-giving Spirit.

1. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

2. Confess publicly of this belief in Christ.

3. Repent (Sorry for sins turned to Christ)

4. To be bapized.

5. To be assured of your salvation.

6. We are not saved by being good.

7. A tither.

8. A daily prayer life.

9. Reading the Bible daily.

10. Know God’s plan for the church.

11. To find a place of Christian service.

12. Learn God’s priorities.

13. Familliar with the Biblical job discriptions.

14. A soul winner. (as you are going)

15. To know the Holy Spirit’s work.

16. To discover your spiritual gift.